KEY POINTS:
Aspiring Asian gun-owners, growing numbers of recreational hunters and the rise of the lifestyle block are being credited for an increase in the number of people seeking gun licences.
A memo to police shows the number of first-time applicants for firearms licences almost doubled in six years, from 4654 in 2001 to 8370 last year.
Mike Spray of the Mountain Safety Council - which runs firearms training and lectures for licensees - said reasons for the rise in new licences were anecdotal, as no statistics were available that analysed them.
But staff had noted increases in younger people and Asians applying for licences.
Mr Spray said that in Japan it was illegal to have a firearm and it was possible people moving to New Zealand took up the opportunity to become licensed simply "because they can".
Increases in lifestyle blocks, viticulture and the popularity of hunting are also thought to be behind the rise, with people using firearms to control pests such as birds and possums.
The Accident Compensation Corporation says that during the six-year period, claims for shooting injuries rose from 17 to 36. It believes firearms incidents are under-reported.
But Inspector Joe Green, manager of licences and vetting at police national headquarters in Wellington, said police were not worried by the increase in new licences.
He said the overall number of firearms licences had remained "fairly static" for about 10 years, fluctuating between 213,000 and 222,300 each year.
Violent crime involving firearms had also stayed steady at between 650 and 700 incidents a year, although Mr Green said raw statistics showed crime involving firearms had slipped since 10 years ago from 1.7 per cent of all violent crime to 1.28 per cent.
Suicides involving firearms had decreased and the homicide rate involving firearms had dropped 35 per cent in the past 15 years, he said.
Philip Alpers, a University of Sydney adjunct associate professor and specialist in firearms injury prevention, said the increase in licences could be a positive factor, because it meant people were going through the proper training and being officially recorded as firearms users.
FIREARMS INCIDENTS
* May 28, 2008: A 59-year-old Turangi man is shot dead while pig hunting.
* May 3, 2008: Two Southland duck hunters, Kelly Mitchell, 27, and Blair Wynne, 26, are injured in two separate incidents near Wyndham on the opening day of duck-shooting season.
* March 15, 2008: Aron Timms, 18, of Taradale is killed after allegedly being mistaken for a deer and shot while hunting in the Tarawera region.
* September 2007: A 19-year-old Palmerston North man is critically injured after being shot in the head by a friend while out hunting with friends.
* May 2007: Bill White, 40, is killed by best friend Shane Phibbs while hunting in the Rough River area near Reefton.
* May 2005: Anthony Hurihanganui, 10, is critically wounded after being shot in the stomach by his 6-year-old cousin in Waikite Valley near Rotorua.
* April 2005: William Gillies is shot by friend Bernard Lee while hunting near Taupo.
ACC CLAIMS
* 2001-2002 & 17
* 2002-2003 & 27
* 2003-2004 & 32
* 2004-2005 & 26
* 2005-2006 & 33
* 2006-2007 & 36
